I was out of the area when the Beer Works proposals were being made; for my own part, I am of the opinion that we don't want to just approve all businesses - because Davis is a location where any business can do well, we ought to be looking at ways in which we can diversify the sorts of businesses we've got.
To that end, I think Yet Another Bar is just as bad as Yet Another Froyo Place or Yet Another Burrito Place - all of the arguments we've heard over and over again for the last fifteen years.
So while, yes, Beer Works would have done well, so will nearly anything that goes into that space. Nothing has, not because of community opposition, but because the landlord refuses to actually repair or maintain that property.
I can't speak to the involvement of any aldermen, and I wouldn't even claim that there are sides to the issue. We all want to live somewhere great. Getting people in a community involved in these decisions isn't dirty politics. It's the way politics is *supposed* to happen.